10 Prompts: Cassetticons
by NKfloofiepoof
Summary: The Great War as seen by the cassettes from the first shots fired to the last. Responses to the 10 Prompts community on LJ where I claimed the Cassettes; this includes Soundwave's and Blaster's. Rating will probably go up.
1. Beginnings

I'm a sucker for bandwagons, but I know myself too well to get in on one of those 100 prompt challenges, so to get my feet wet, I started small and picked 10-prompts on LJ and claimed the Cassettes. Because they need love. D:

Prompts are in a sort of chronological order starting with Cybertron and ending after Earth, and if I go out of this order on LJ, I'm not uploading it here until the gap is filled. I'm OCD like that. If you have an LJ and want to keep track better, feel free to friend the community **deceptikitty**.

This will probably end up going into my _'Til All Are One_ AU if this gets to season 3 because the '86 movie either does what I want it to or it doesn't exist. Denial is good.

First prompt is "Beginnings".

* * *

Cybertron was always dark.

One would think all of the artificial lighting and the brilliant glow of the smelters and the spotlights shining into the sky would keep the metallic planet fairly illuminated, but no - all light was lost in the dark sky always filled with stars. No sun shined on Cybertron where it floated in the emptiness of the void, its homestar abandoned long ago. The planet was in a permanent twilight with no overly thick, gaseous atmosphere to dampen the shine of the heavens - of one to prevent cosmic radiation from permeating the metal planet and its inhabitants, and even then, the atmosphere was artificial - more like a forcefield generated from deep within Cybertron itself to offer just enough oxygen and nitrogen to fuel the flames of the smelters and combat the radiation of space.

The endless twilight was simply something a Cybertronian grew accustomed to - most knew nothing else. Few knew the feeling of wind going through their systems and caressing circuitry never before touched, and even fewer knew the warmth of a brightly shining sun or the light of a new day.

Ravage was not one of them.

The black Cassetticon lifted her head to watch the stars where she lay on a ledge overlooking Iacon, and her tape crackled deep inside her as she made a quick recording of a streak of light far in the distant sky. The stars fascinated her - the way some flickered while others shined steadily, the way some moved while others remained stationary, the way most where white but some were red, blue, and even a green one or two - it was quite interesting, and she could spend countless cycles simply watching them and taking snapshots of anything she could not understand so as to investigate further. The shimmering lights of Iacon were much like the stars in the sky, flickering and moving in a similar way, but Iacon's light was much brighter and harsher than the distant lanterns of the heavens. Still, she made a few more recordings for comparison as well as made a mental note to compare Iacon and the stars to other cities - Praxus would be a good one.

A chime in the back of her mind tore her attention from the sky, and she glanced over her silver shoulder to see a familiar blue form stepping toward her. Cybertron's eternal twilight played over his color, making him appear darker than he truly was, and shadows fell harshly across his sharp corners. The only thing the twilight could not modify was the steady crimson glow of his visor which he kept trained on the city far below as he stopped beside her and slowly sat next to her, one large leg hanging over the ledge.

Ravage's tape crackled more audibly in contentment as her optics dimmed in response to Soundwave's large blue fingers as they slid over her head and across her audio receptors. The touch was all too short-lived, and she stubbornly pushed her head back into his hand when he tried to stop. His amusement tickled the back of her mind as he relented, and Ravage shifted her position so she leaned against his leg where she lay.

After a moment, she rewound her tape slightly and, using the gift of telepathy she had inherited from him when he first Sparked her, sent Soundwave the first image she took of the light in the sky, and behind it was her endless curiousity - what was it? He never failed to answer her and even found her fascination with the stars amusing.

"Comet," he answered simply in the melodious echo she had always known him to have.

_"But isn't it too low?"_ she inquired further. At this, Soundwave looked closer at the image she sent him before he sent a negative response.

"Appearances deceiving," was his answer. "On horizon." Satisfied, Ravage settled against him once more and moved her attention back to the glimmering city below. She had long ago learned why he spoke so oddly compared to other Cybertronians - the bond they shared as creator and offspring as well as the gift of telepathy she had inherited from him prevented him from keeping secrets from her. He once worked as a scientist many vorns past, and an explosion had rendered his vocal processor functional only thirty percent. It was painful to speak properly, so he simply did not do it, and since he could still get his point across even with his limited speech, he saw no point in having it repaired. Ravage had probed his memories in the past to hear for herself what he had once sounded like, and she had to admit she preferred the harmonic echo he now possessed. It was soothing.

_"Where are the others?"_ she asked after nearly two breems of silence. She did not have a proper vocal processor of her own, but they needed no spoken words.

"Recharging," Soundwave replied, and as he did so, he lifted his free hand to touch the tips of his fingers to the protective covering over his chest. She was not too surprised her younger siblings were already resting. The twins Rumble and Frenzy were still exhausted from their performance at a concert the orn before, and Laserbeak had made the mistake of trying a new mix of energon - her filters had a hard time processing it, so Ravage assumed earlier that she would go offline early.

_"And the new one?"_ she asked, unable to prevent her muzzle from pulling back in a small grin when she felt him swell in pride. He lived for this - she could not imagine what he would be like if Primus had not granted him the rare ability to split his spark and create life.

"Growing," Soundwave answered, injured voice devoid of the excitement Ravage felt practically rolling off of him. The nameless spark nestled in the larger mech's spark chamber was already halfway through its development - soon enough, it would be ready for the body Soundwave had already completed for it.

A soft, steady roar brought the black femme's attention back to the sky, and she raised her head just in time to see a series of mechs fly overhead toward Iacon. She could only make out a silhouette against the star-filled sky, and she saw no wings on any of them - they must have been part of the new line of mechs she heard about from Soundwave, the new line which could fly without wings. There were not many of them yet, so it was almost an honor to witness them in flight.

_"What would it be like to fly?"_ Ravage asked her creator when she could no longer see the flying mechs as they descended into the city.

"Suggestion: inquire Laserbeak." Ravage whirred her tape with annoyance and let her head once again rest on her folded paws. She had tried that before, and Soundwave knew she had. Laserbeak was not exactly the brightest of the four and was not very informative. She could not tell Ravage of how it _felt_ to fly.

After a klik, she tilted her head slightly so she could look up at Soundwave when her annoyance did not trigger the spark of amusement it should have. His red visor was trained on the city, and for the first time, she felt something new from him - apprehension. Unnerved, she probed further and growled when he tried to block her.

_"You can't keep secrets from me,"_ Ravage warned him. She did not like what she was feeling from him - apprehension, worry, emotions not like her creator - and she demanded an explanation. If he did not tell her or continued to block her, she would get the information she wanted by force.

Soundwave knew that, and after another klik of watching Iacon, he turned his head to look right at her, hesitating once more as if judging how he wanted to word what he needed to say.

Ravage realized later that he hesitated because he was stalling.

Ravage leapt to her feet in alarm when she heard an explosion and tore her gaze from Soundwave back to Iacon to see the remnants of a pillar of fire disappear into Cybertron's twilight. Smoke billowed from the outer region of the city where the flying mechs had disappeared to be joined by another ball of flame, and the shockwave from the explosions shook the pillar where she and her creator observed. It took more effort than she liked for Ravage to turn her gaze back up to Soundwave who was still watching her.

She took a small step backwards when he opened his chest, and she gave him an angry growl in response before she lashed out, but before she could force her way into his mind for the answers she wanted, he finally relented.

"Safe location: necessary," he said. "Future: uncertain."

Ravage's growl lowered as she forced her anger to the side and let herself think about the situation. Wandering through Kaon, she had heard talk of a group of mechs unhappy with the way Cybertron was being run - a rebellion of sorts. She had not entertained the notion for long - it was absurd. Cybertron functioned just fine, and its inhabitants were at peace.

Obviously, not enough agreed with her. Ravage reluctantly looked back down to the now burning area of the city - the docking areas if she remembered right. She could only watch for a klik before she moved her gaze back up to her creator. She knew what it meant, but she had to ask anyway.

_"So it's true."_

Soundwave nodded quietly and looked to Iacon.

"War."


	2. Afraid

Harsh light slashed through Cybertron's twilight, a steady search beam illuminating the darkness and reflecting off of smoke curling up from the twisted and scorched metal which was once a tall, sturdy building on the outskirts of Kaon. Flames still licked upwards from the debris, nearly extinguished for lack of anything else to burn as they ravenously consumed the tiny remnants of oil leaked from the bodies of those unfortunate enough to have been trapped in the downed structure. A groundling Cybertronian crept past the jagged ruin, the large, metal spheres it used for wheels crunching glass and lifeless bodies mercilessly as its search beam swept from one side to the other and back again. It barked something into the darkness, a booming grumble in Kaon's dialect which it used to taunt the small mechs for whom it was searching.

One of the mechs in question pressed himself tighter into a crevice framed by debris as the search beam swept directly overhead. His black and red coloration made it easier for him to lose himself in the permanent twilight blanketing Cybertron, but his companion was not so lucky, his varying shades of blue easier to spot in the darkness and aided by the brightly colored fluids coating his battered and twisted body.

Frenzy tightened his arms around his twin when the light slid overhead once more and tried to still his fearful trembling. It was a blessing from Primus himself that he had even managed to get Rumble away from the massive mech now searching for them, a blessing that he had been quick enough to think to use his instrument's drums which rested in his own body. By adjusting the frequency and speed of their resonance, he was able to stun the enormous mech long enough to grab his brother and flee, but now they had a bigger problem - the mech was still hungry, and now he was angry as well.

Kaon was in a state of utter chaos. Not the most prestigious of Cybertronian city-states to begin with, it was the first to suffer when the drums of war began to call. The slums fell first, then, gradually, the whole city as the new political party garnered support through fear - one joined and supported the Decepticon New Order, or one died - it was as simple as that. Kaon, a city of thieves, traitors, and warmongers, was easily influenced, and it was a stroke of misfortune that Soundwave had been there when the attacks first began.

Soundwave knew it was coming - he knew Kaon would be targeted first after the preemptive strike in Iacon. He, unfortunately, had obligations in the city which needed to be settled, so he arranged to do so as quickly as possible, judging that it would only take an orn, and then he and his cassettes would never have to return to the doomed city.

His timing was off.

It happened so fast, Frenzy was still reeling and trying to make sense of it all. The first strikes came from the deepest part of the city and worked their way outwards, and Soundwave's initial reaction was to gather his cassettes into the relative safety of his chest and make his way out of the city as quickly as possible, but as hostilities continued to escalate at a dizzying pace, he ejected the twins, Ravage, and Laserbeak with instructions to stay low and recon outside the city. The last Frenzy saw of his creator, Soundwave was heading down an already torn street with two large mechs chasing him, acting as a diversion for his offspring to escape.

That was three orns past.

Rumble twitched weakly in Frenzy's grip but otherwise did not move. Frenzy cast his gaze upwards and noted that the search beam had not passed over in a few kliks. In the hopes that the groundling mech had moved on, the red twin took that opportunity to carefully set his brother down on the ground so he could survey Rumble's injuries more thoroughly. Not medically trained in the least, Frenzy was not certain he could do anything to help Rumble, but he had to _try_.

In their panic to escape after seeing the size of the mechs chasing Soundwave, it was not long before all four cassettes were separated in the growing chaos. Frenzy tried to use his twin bond to reunite himself with Rumble, but his fear was stronger and likely amplified by Rumble's own fear. As such, Frenzy spent an orn and a half hiding in a grime-covered alley using the telepathy passed down to him from Soundwave to call out for his siblings. He was not too concerned for Laserbeak - so long as she was not shot down, he knew she could easily fly out of Kaon. Being black, Ravage could easily lose herself in the shadows and was adept at sliding under the sensors of most mechs. It was the uncertainty of Rumble's fate which terrified him.

During the two orns he was hiding, Frenzy witnessed Kaon's situation go from bad to worse - as more and more of the city was destroyed, so too were any fuel sources it held, and the surviving mechs either too stubborn or too thirsty for destruction to leave for another city were growing desperate for sustenance and scavenged the remains of dead and dying mechs among the debris. When his chronometer reset to mark the beginning of the third orn, Frenzy finally crept out of the alley in the hopes that the chaos had died down enough for him to find his siblings or escape the mutilated city. He did not make it far before his bond to Rumble flared so painfully, it nearly sent him to his knees. The pain was a sign, a silent, wordless cry for help, and Frenzy immediately followed its weakening tug, letting it guide him to his brother.

In a particularly scorched area of Kaon near the outer edge of the city, he found an enormous groundling mech knelt down with his massive hands brought up to his face. Shimmering vital fluids dripped between his fingers and splashed onto the ground, and Frenzy balked in horror as he recognized the mangled blue form which the mech was attempting to drain of energon and any other fluids which would serve as sustenance.

Frenzy shuddered as he looked closely at the damage done to his twin. His entire torso was ripped open, fuel tank ruptured and piping shredded. His backup fuel tank creaked ominously as it worked on its own to keep Rumble's body functioning. A few severed wires sparked, and his black band of tape hung out of his abdomen in badly creased loops. Frenzy had no idea where one piece of his brother's internal functions ended and another began, and all he could think to do was tie off the ragged ends of the severed fuel lines and pull out the damaged wiring. Rumble barely did more than twitch as Frenzy worked.

After a klik, Frenzy noticed Rumble was not leaking quite as much though he was not certain if that was because he had actually helped or because Rumble was running dangerously low on energon. No matter the cause, it was slowing, and Frenzy, refusing to accept the fact that his brother was dying, stubbornly assured himself that it was a good thing.

He listened intently for another klik before he finally dared to pull Rumble into his arms once more, and he stood slowly and began to make his way past the wreckage. He knew they were close to the edge of Kaon - he recognized the ruins. If he could just get Rumble out of the city, he could more easily get him to a neighboring city for medical attention. With any luck, his sisters and Soundwave were already there safe and sound.

The angry growl of an engine made Frenzy's grip on Rumble tighten just before he bolted like a turbofox charging for its den, and little more than an astrosecond or two later, his former hiding place exploded in a cloud of shrapnel as it was crushed under the groundling mech's massive fist. Frenzy estimated he had only a few more astroseconds before the angry mech stumbled his bulky form over the debris and renewed pursuit, so he ran as fast as his drained systems would allow, almost slipping as he rushed around the husk of a building in an attempt to find another alley or debris pile or anything else to hide in. Hydraulics and cables in his legs protested the abuse, but he still tried to run faster when he heard the mech drop down to his round wheels behind him.

Rounding another corner, Frenzy swore vocally and skidded to a stop in front of a towering pile of rubble still smoking and burning in places. It was easily as tall as the mech chasing them, so high Frenzy had to crane his neck backwards to see the top, and he knew he would have easily been able to scramble over it under any other circumstances but not carrying Rumble. With Rumble incapacitated, it was nothing but a dead end from which he had no time to backtrack.

The groundling mech's engine roared behind him, and he spun to face it even as he backed himself against the wall of rubble. The mech's vehicular form stared him down, engine revving menacingly and, Frenzy thought, triumphantly. It began to shift to its primary form, and Frenzy's chest shook from the panicked vibration of his drums as he tried desperately to think. He saw no chance to squeeze past it - darting around either side would only put him in its massive hands if not its waiting jaws, and a combination of dread and a grim acceptance of his fate made Frenzy's systems stall for an astrosecond. Still, better to die quickly trying than stand gaping at their attacker and slowly be eaten alive, so he crouched and let his pained legs gather strength to bolt once more.

He did not get a chance as something dropped from the sky directly between himself and the groundling mech, red and white frame barely scratched and accented with the orange flames nestled in the rubble behind Frenzy. Broad wings sat high on its back and hiked still higher as the new mech wordlessly tried to assert its dominance. The groundling mech was not impressed and said as much with an angry rumble of its engine before it swung its fist at the new, comparatively smaller mech.

Frenzy was not about to question his luck, nor was he going to simply stand and watch the two fight. The enormous groundling mech still blocked escape from the ruined street, and even if he had not, Frenzy feared being stepped on trying to squeeze past, so he turned back to the wall of rubble. He heard the new mech talking - taunting - the groundling in a screechy voice which hurt Frenzy's audio receptors, but he tried to ignore it and quickly located a crevice in the debris in which he immediately pushed his brother's damaged form. There was barely room enough for both of them, but the red cassette made it work, pushing Rumble to the back of the crevice and placing himself between him and the small opening.

By the time he was nestled inside and turned back to the fight in the street, the groundling mech lay twitching on the ground, systems locking up and falling offline. The new mech stood triumphant over it and gloated arrogantly for a klik before it turned to face Frenzy's hiding place and spoke.

"Come on out," it called in its shrill voice as it took a few steps toward the rubble then stopped at a non-threatening distance. "Your creator has negotiated with our leader and joined the New Order in exchange for your safety and survival. I was sent to retrieve you as I could find you faster than he."

Frenzy was not stupid and did not reply, instead huddling up as far into the crevice as the unyielding rubble and his brother's body would allow. After three orns of seeing nothing but chaos, he could not be blamed for skepticism, and the new mech seemed to realize this as he shortly added, "Ah, yes - he gave me a code to give you in order to prove I'm speaking the truth. The code phrase is 'through the fire and the flames'."

The red cassette's visor brightened - that was a song he and Rumble had been working on for their next concert before the threat of war quashed hopes of continuing their circuit. Only Soundwave, Ravage, and Laserbeak knew any of the words as he and Rumble had not yet finalized them and had, in fact, been arguing over them for the last few dozen orns. Hesitantly, Frenzy crawled forward just enough to slowly look out of his hiding place and up at the new mech.

It was a flyer - a true flyer though there was something odd about its coloration which Frenzy could not quite discern. Still, its model gave its story further credit - a flyer would indeed be able to search for them faster than Soundwave himself given the state of the city, so the cassette slowly finished crawling free of the rubble and turned back to retrieve his damaged sibling who was carefully taken away from him by a large blue hand. Frenzy sat in the other hand and gripped the mech's fingers tightly as they started rising into the air.

They rose straight up in relative silence until Kaon was far beneath them, then the flyer banked to his right and started toward the outskirts of the city which were further away than Frenzy initially thought. He pulled his gaze away from the ruined city and looked instead up at the flyer to get a better look at him which was when he noticed exactly what seemed odd about its color - every flyer Frenzy had ever seen before had a silver face, but this one bore a dark face like the soot and smoke blanketing Kaon.

"So," the flyer spoke to tear Frenzy from his thoughts and break the silence, "I'm Starscream. And you?"

"F-Frenzy."


	3. Scarred

Rumble was always cold.

Soundwave sacrificed a lot to protect him and his brethren from the worst aspects of the war. After the attack on Kaon twelve thousand vorns past which had triggered the true beginning of the Great War, Soundwave swiftly began to ascend the ranks of the Decepticons - the higher he ranked, the safer his offspring were from the starving maws of the soldiers. It worked for the most part. They had to defend themselves occasionally from the jealous, greedy claws of those mechs who saw no reason why the cassettes should have been granted their own exalted position by virtue of their creator's hard work, but if there was one universal fact about Cassetticons, it was that they adapted readily and easily. It was not only Soundwave's struggles and compromises which earned them their keep; they had also been required to prove their own worth.

Ravage proved herself to be adept at espionage as had Laserbeak, but Ravage was also an astounding fighter for her size, capable of taking down mechs nearly five times bigger than herself. Rumble and Frenzy proved their worth as well - fueled by his rage at being attacked and victimized in Kaon, Rumble persuaded Soundwave into modifying his arms so he would never again be so defenseless. Once Soundwave was finished, Rumble's arms could shift into large pylons which would shake the ground under those who dared to attack him, and quickly earned himself a reputation which belied his size. Frenzy, in addition to the use he discovered in Kaon of his internal drums for shocking the systems of nearby mechs, proved himself to be a talented hacker and, thus, invaluable as a partner to Ravage for infiltration. Even the young, still newly-sparked Buzzsaw showed a talent for battle and was quickly added to the ranks as a partner for Rumble.

Their abilities, both innate and learned, greatly helped Soundwave's own ascent, and Megatron quickly realized their combined worth. What began as barely a storage closet with nothing but a generator in one corner for forced recharging soon became a comfortably-sized room with a proper recharge station, a computer, and even a few shelves for Ravage, Laserbeak, and Buzzsaw's use as perches. It was almost the same quality as an officer's quarters and a vast improvement.

It still was not home, but none of them were naive enough to believe anything would ever feel like home in Praxus again. Ravage knew she would never again see the stars without wondering if she was not seeing comets but missiles from Iacon. Rumble and Frenzy would never again play their music for the masses in the center of Crystal City, Frenzy's instrument converted to a weapon and Rumble too damaged to conjure his own anymore. Laserbeak knew she would never again race across the sky and flaunt her aerial prowess only for show, and Buzzsaw knew nothing but the war.

They all managed to adapt to their shockingly changed lives and continued to overcome the setbacks laid before them by those either jealous or otherwise prejudiced against their kind. However, there was one thing his siblings could adapt to which Rumble feared he would never again be able - the cold.

Rumble hated to bother Soundwave when his creator was so deeply in recharge. He knew how exhausted the blue mech was orn after orn, drained from his obligations to Megatron, but there was only so much of the constant, throbbing ache Rumble could endure without support, so once again, he found himself sitting on Soundwave's abdomen and using his comparatively tiny fingers to trace the purple emblem on the glass over his creator's chest.

That purple symbol represented so many things - power, freedom, and many other lies according to Megatron. To Rumble, it only represented pain and twelve thousand vorns of hardship, and he wanted little more than to take his own small fingers and scrape it away, erase it from his creator's chest, his siblings' bodies, and his own shell, but he knew better - he learned his lesson the first time. Still, he did not hate the symbol any less. It served as nothing but a reminder of everything he had been through since the war began, starting with Kaon.

He would never forget Kaon, would never forget the blazing optics of the enormous mech who attacked him or the agony of its fingers tearing into him and jaws closing around him to drain his vital fluids. Rumble knew Soundwave tried his best to repair him, but the Decepticons were too under supplied to spare him the necessary parts to fully replace and repair Rumble's damaged components, so he had to fix and reinforce the damage, leaving Rumble, for all intents and purposes, scarred. He was whole on the outside, but his interior systems were twisted and marred with old damage and solder from repairs, and now that they were high-ranking enough to have access to the proper replacements, Soundwave was reluctant to attempt further work. Rumble's own internal repair systems had sealed the scars, and breaking them would do more harm than good if performed by anything other than a properly trained medic of which the Decepticons were still sorely lacking, so Rumble had to endure the never ending ache - and the cold.

Scarred and damaged as he was, Rumble's body could only heat itself minimally - just enough to prevent the circulation of his vital fluids from slowing or freezing. The chill made his wires and cabling tight to preserve heat, and, often, all he could bring himself to care to do was curl up and attempt to warm himself. The only reprieve he had was inside Soundwave.

Rumble rubbed his fingertips up and down the expanse of the glass covering his creator's chest, tentative and reluctant. Soundwave must have been well and truly exhausted - he was usually awake by now, and this realization gave Rumble cause to hesitate; however, the painful creaking of his own internals as they tightened further urged him to continue, and he pawed Soundwave's chest with just a little more fervor as he whispered, "Let me in."

Crimson light joined the soft glow of his own visor, illuminating their dark quarters just a little more. Rumble's hands stilled as he felt large fingers gently slide up his comparatively smaller back, and he lowered his head further in shame, wordlessly apologizing for waking his creator. Instead, he looked to the side where he saw his twin tucked comfortably against Soundwave's side, mirroring where Rumble had been at Soundwave's other side earlier. He knew Ravage was curled up against the large mech's neck, and Laserbeak and Buzzsaw recharged quietly on one of the shelves overhead. Rumble and now Soundwave were the only ones awake in their quarters.

Soundwave continued to stroke two massive fingers up and down Rumble's back for a klik, wordlessly assuring the blue cassette that he did not mind being awakened. He raised his free hand, and, careful not to bump and awaken Ravage, he pressed the button to open his chest. Without hesitation, Rumble compacted himself into his alternative form and allowed Soundwave to place him inside and close his chest. Less than a klik later, Rumble heard the steady hum of Soundwave's systems grow slightly louder as he worked them just a little harder. Warmth crept into Rumble's systems, and the drone of Soundwave's internals was soon joined by the creator's soft, harmonic voice humming a soothing tone, and, relieved, Rumble allowed himself to relax and begin to once again shut down, and the last things he heard before he fell offline were the last few notes of his creator's song.


	4. Cleaning

There were few luxuries remaining which could be enjoyed by all no matter how highly or lowly they ranked. The war destroyed most of them. Music was a forgotten art remembered only by those who either indulged or performed, there were no indigenous wildlife left to hunt for sport, and energon was primarily a source of sustenance rather than one for leisure, so most energon manufactured anymore was of low quality only suited for barely substantial nutrition. However, cleanliness was a luxury afforded by all. It was imperative all soldiers maintain themselves properly, for a clean warrior was a functional warrior, and it was the one remaining luxury which Soundwave did not deny his creations.

Laserbeak emerged from the cleaning solution and shook her head to rid herself of the excess, the silvery chemical dripping from her beak and trickling down her neck. With it flowed the soot and dried fluids which had caked onto her frame since her last cleaning, and they were slowly dissolved by the cleaner. There was barely enough room in the basin for herself and all of her siblings, but it was better than sharing facilities with the larger mechs, so none of them complained, least of all Rumble who was intensely distrustful of the other Decepticons.

Laserbeak spread her wings to give her more surface area on which to float in the dense solution, the tip of one wing touching her youngest brother who chirped tiredly where he floated next to her and hovered in and out of recharge. The cleaning fluid held warmth very well, so Soundwave did not have to waste too much of the Decepticons' precious little energy to warm the basin, and even with five Cassetticons to bathe, they did not require an excessive amount of the solution, so Soundwave was able to keep the basin filled and stored in his private quarters to use when necessary.

Ravage drifted by Laserbeak and Buzzsaw as she too succumbed to the warmth, only her back, the top of her head, and her dull optics visible above the opaque silver fluid. Frenzy was tucked against the edge, fully online but remaining quiet so as not to disturb his tired siblings. A wave in the solution signified Soundwave dipping one hand back into the cleaner to scoop out a handful and carefully pour it into Rumble's open torso, carefully cleaning his damaged internal systems. Rumble was mostly offline, his mind numbed by Soundwave's telepathy so he would not be affected by the pain which always came with cleaning his broken frame.

Laserbeak buzzed out a snort and dipped her head back below the cleaner briefly before she threw her head back once more, splashing some of the solution onto her back. The waves her action caused in the fluid made Buzzsaw give out an annoyed chirp, and it was not long before the older of the two avian cassettes let out a sharp whirr when the point of Buzzsaw's beak was jabbed on top of her head. Not one to be bested like that, Laserbeak was quick to retaliate with a peck of her own, and Buzzsaw let out a piteous croon and sagged where he floated, pouting.

The younger of the two femmes huffed her annoyance through her vents and turned her attention back to cleaning herself, splashing the silver solution onto her back once more. Cleaning was her favorite way to relax and, as far as she was concerned, the method which proved to be the least harmful in the long run. Laserbeak's optics dimmed slightly when she narrowed her scope of vision to scrutinize all of her brethren. She did not at all agree with her siblings' pastimes.

Ravage was still fascinated with the stars despite how dangerous it was to venture outside, and no small number of times, Laserbeak found her sister tucked against the wall just inside the main entrance to Polyhex's central tower, her optics locked on the dark sky. Once Ravage began to survey the heavens, there was little Laserbeak could do to coax the eldest cassette away. It worried her how lost Ravage could become watching such a frighteningly empty void that was the sky of Cybertron, but there was no reasoning with her sister. Despite how hard she tried and how much she pleaded, Laserbeak could not tear Ravage away from her vigil.

Frenzy was another matter and one whose habits worried Laserbeak even more than Ravage's. Ever since they were rescued from Kaon by that sniveling flying mech, her brother's already precious little free time was steadily being spent more and more with Starscream, and recently, it had escalated from simple visits and conversations to something far more...personal.

Oh, he did not think anyone knew what they did behind the closed door to Starscream's quarters, but she did - she knew everything which happened in Polyhex. Few kept secrets from her - if there was any sort of opening be it a window or the slightest crack in the door, Laserbeak could see in. She spied on everyone she could - she had to. It was the only way she could know the truth of these horrible mechs they were forced to work alongside. Within only a few dozen orns of the war's beginning, she methodically honed her skills so she would know who to watch, who to avoid, and who to trust, and she had not found many she could trust - least of all Starscream. However, despite her frantic warnings, Frenzy continued to see the dark-faced mech. It was disappointing and worrisome, but there was little else she could do. There was no denying the fact that the blanket of depression which always shrouded Frenzy was lifted every time he emerged from Starscream's quarters. Soundwave shared Laserbeak's concerns, but Frenzy was quite obviously happy with the arrangement, so he did not have the spark to forbid his young creation from seeing Starscream.

Another wave in the silver fluid brought Laserbeak's attention back to the present in time to see Soundwave carefully lower Rumble into the cleaner and prop him against the side of the basin. Once Rumble was comfortable, he reached over and tugged Buzzsaw to him who crooned happily and allowed his creator to remove him from the solution and clean the crevices and wires he could not reach himself.

Rumble and Buzzsaw worried Laserbeak the most. Buzzsaw found the war absolutely fascinating and took great joy in practicing his aerial maneuvers and firing upon targets. He had nearly perfected his own style of aerial combat, combining lethal firepower and masterful accuracy with elegant, almost artistic acrobatics and maneuvers. He strove to be the best at his duties and had, thus far, succeeded which earned him the attention and approval of Megatron himself which only served to frighten Laserbeak further. She hated Megatron with a passion for forcing Soundwave into this service under the pretense of protecting them, but to Buzzsaw, Megatron was an idol surpassed only by Primus himself, and his every online moment was spent thinking of how better to serve his lord.

Rumble, however, did not frighten Laserbeak so much as he made her spark ache. His continued existence was nothing more than a reminder for her of how much the war had taken away from them all. She was there when Rumble and Frenzy were Sparked and witnessed their removal from Soundwave's spark chamber to be placed into their own, and she had witnessed Rumble's continual spiral downwards since the war's beginning. What was once an exuberant, masterful musician full of life and enthusiasm for the future had degraded to an angry shell in constant pain and continually tormented by the cold. His temper was volatile, and the walls of Polyhex's corridors were riddled with dents and holes knee-high to most mechs where Rumble's fists and piledrivers exacted his frustration and released his nearly never ending rage. He hated everyone around him and often picked fights with mechs many times larger than himself just to be able to use his piledrivers on something which protested more than the walls. Laserbeak knew he did not see the mechs he fought - he only saw the one mech who had taken away so much from him in Kaon, and the brawls were his way of gaining his revenge.

Lost in her thoughts of worry and fear, Laserbeak barely registered a tug on her wing before she was lifted from the cleaner. She only let her mind clear when she felt her creator's large blue fingers on her back, cleaning where she could not reach, and she let herself focus on it, her optics dimming slowly before shutting off completely. Soundwave's touch relaxed her and pulled her mind from the worries which kept her from recharging properly orn after orn. She softly crooned her approval and received the gentle pressure and stroking of his thumb against the top of her head for a brief klik before he returned to the task at hand.

While he cleaned her, Laserbeak moved her attention back to her brethren, able to see all of them at once where she was held just above the basin. Rumble had migrated in his half-online state to curl against his twin, his head resting on Frenzy's shoulder who sat very still with both arms wrapped protectively around his brother. Ravage still floated lazily near the middle of the basin, and Buzzsaw floated similarly in front of her, the two tiredly staring each other down.

Breems like these, where they could temporarily forget the chaos on the other side of the door, were rare, and Laserbeak indulged in them as best she could. Breems like these were the few times she ever saw her siblings and creator truly relaxed, and it seemed as if the outside world did not matter, and they served as a much needed reminder that, despite everything, they were still a family, and even the war could not take that away.

* * *

Every profile I've ever read on Laserbeak has said she (he) was basically a coward preferring to stay in the background or fire from a distance, so I figured she'd be kind of a worrywort. I hope I portrayed that well.


	5. Awe

**A/N:** This was the prompt that started this little project. I knew exactly how I wanted to go about it as soon as I saw the word on the list of prompts, and it dictated how all four previous prompts turned out. It's changed a little since I started, but the overall idea remains.

* * *

Earth was an amazing place.

Buzzsaw rolled in the air with the flow of the wind, letting out an ecstatic whirr as he went. Laserbeak was far less amused, chirring at him that he was just begging for a horrible crash, but the younger avian mech ignored her. The feeling of the wind on this strange, bright planet was absolutely fascinating - he felt like a sparkling again, and he marvelled in the way it pushed and pulled at him from all angles and could not help but indulge in the experience.

He would have been the first to admit he initially had his doubts about the odd planet much as he understood they truly had no choice in calling it their new, temporary home. He was in a deep recharge inside Soundwave when the Decepticons launched in pursuit of the Autobots, so it was quite a shock when he was ejected into the dusty air of an organic planet just a few cycles ago when the Decepticons emerged from stasis on the foreign world. Admittedly, before then, Buzzsaw had not really known what "dirt" was - nor wind, for that matter. Certainly, he had witnessed the cosmic wind which sometimes enveloped Cybertron, but that was a phenomenon to be feared and one from which all small Cybertronians sought shelter until it passed. The cosmic wind brought heavy amounts of stellar radiation which could irreparably damage the smaller of their kind, especially those Buzzsaw's and his siblings' size, so when it came, they hid inside Soundwave, protected by his thick plating as well as by the buffer of his larger spark's energy.

_This_ planet's wind, however, bode no ill omen as Buzzsaw quickly discerned after only half a breem of flight. Laserbeak chided him for his behavior, but he continued to ignore her. It was not as if they were on any assignment worth mentioning - they were merely surveying the surrounding area while the other stranded Decepticons began construction on the Nemesis II. So long as he did not stray too far away from their self-claimed territory, he was free to enjoy the strange, soothing wind as much as he liked, and he did so with fervor and quickly discovered that the higher in altitude he flew, the stronger the wind became. This delighted him even more, and he soon all but shut off his thrusters and allowed the wind to do what it wished with him.

Laserbeak stayed at a far more comfortable altitude and tried to ignore her brother's immature chirping. Certainly, the organic planet's wind was intriguing, but it was not _that_ fascinating. She found no joy in letting a force which she could not see buffet her around the sky, and she quickly tired of trying to talk Buzzsaw down.

The _clouds_ were another matter entirely. _Those_ were quite fascinating. Cybertron had its fair share, but they were typically just smog or smoke from factories and the smelters and released torrents of acid rain on occasion. Earth's clouds, however, were made of water vapor - tiny droplets of water molecules tightly packed together which formed a fluffy mass which almost seemed solid at a distance but proved to be nothing more than mist up close. Laserbeak had never seen anything like them before, and despite her continual berating of Buzzsaw for behaving like a sparkling, she soon found herself flying through the clouds and quickly making a game of it. She punched through one and quickly looked back to see if she might possibly have left a hole. They seemed so solid at just the right distance, it only made sense that her flying through would have damaged them, but no - nothing she did phased it, and it continued to drift lazily across the sky and ignore her presence.

They were so many colors, too. Most where brilliant white, but it did not take long for her patrol to bring her to a very dark grey cloud to the far northern edge of her designated scouting area, and she immediately dove into it as well only to click in surprise when the mist she was expecting was instead rain. Laserbeak panicked at first, expecting the burning of acid on her delicate wings and even more fragile thrusters, but as she left the cloud again, she realized it was not hurting her - it was only water, not acid, and it pelted her metal frame softly and dripped from her wings and beak harmlessly. It was quite...calming, and she soon found her mind relaxed in a way she thought only cleaning could achieve.

Intrigued, Laserbeak hovered in place and quietly surveyed the grey fog above her which spilled its rain over the land below. It continued to drift across the sky and left a wake of water where ever it passed just like the acid rain clouds on Cybertron but far less destructive. She continued to hover and watch it until it passed completely, and then the sun slowly dried the water from her frame. Laserbeak tilted her head and reluctantly resumed her survey of the landscape though every few kliks, her mind wandered, and she found herself watching the clouds in the hope that another dark grey one would pass by again.

Maybe Earth was not so bad after all.

--

Earth was an amazing place.

Whistles and chirps and other lilting notes filled the air with a symphony unlike anything ever heard on Cybertron. It was halting and random with little rhythm and seemed to come from all directions at once with varying pitch and intensity, but somehow, it still sounded...musical.

Frenzy found himself trying to imitate the noises, listening intently to the different trills and whistles and working his vocal processor to copy them. There were so many different kinds of noises - trills, chirps, whistles, and cries - at so many different pitches, registers, and rhythms and coming from so many different directions, it quickly became too difficult to focus on all of them, so Frenzy picked out one and concentrated on it, noting the melody. It took a few tries, but he managed to discern the rhythm and soon imitated the sound almost perfectly with his vocal processor.

It had been far, _far_ too long since he last heard music, much less made it, and while the noises were not true music in the sense he was accustomed to, it was close enough to relax his weary processors and make him forget entirely that he was supposed to be surveying and patrolling the ground while Laserbeak and Buzzsaw scouted the air.

He settled himself on the ground underneath a large specimen of organic vegetation which towered high over his head, its brown center pole branching off into a sea of brown and green which blocked his direct view of the sky. Many others of similar construct surrounded him, and since that seemed to be where the noises were originating, his initial thought was that the vegetation on this organic world could sing. It was a fascinating prospect, and Frenzy made himself comfortable in the soft dirt between two of the large plant's anchors near where they disappeared into the ground as he continued to imitate the sound he had mastered.

Suddenly, a flash of yellow caught his vision, and Frenzy's visor flickered in surprise when he located the burst of color. On the green ground just a few paces away was a tiny organic creature, brilliant yellow in color with a tuft of black on its head. Black eyes watched Frenzy as closely as he watched the creature, and it tilted its head curiously before it opened its orange, strangely-shaped mouth and made a noise which nearly made Frenzy jump. So _this_ was the cause of the noise.

The creature repeated its short song and tilted its head again, and it dawned on Frenzy that it was awaiting a response. When he whistled in answer, the creature hopped twice, cautiously closing the distance between them, and whistled again. It did not take long for Frenzy to realize the whistles and trills were a form of communication for the organic, and that realization made him wonder just how many more and how many different kinds there were hiding in the sea of green above his head.

A few more exchanged repeats of the trill saw the little creature flitting into the air to rest on Frenzy's upraised knee, and the black and red cassette sat as still as he could so as not to frighten it. With it so close, he could now study it more closely, and he marvelled at its appearance. Its basic shape was really not so dissimilar from his own avian siblings despite being made of entirely organic material rather than metallic. Its colors reminded Frenzy of Buzzsaw - bright gold with tufts of dark, yellowish black on its head and the backs of its wings.

And suddenly, it began to sing - truly sing. It quit repeating the same trill over and over again and instead let loose a symphony of whistles and chirps with no true rhythm yet somehow maintaining a very pleasant melody, and it flapped its little wings as it sang. Frenzy was so surprised at the sudden change that he fell silent and only listened to the creature's lilting serenade.

After half a breem, he tried to join it after finding the proper pitch, and his duties were completely forgotten as he lost himself in the impromptu and primitive concert and buried himself in near forgotten memories of how he once entertain the masses of Cybertron with his brother not too unlike this. The source was different by far, and it was certainly not of the same caliber he once played, but music was music regardless of the species, and Frenzy was certainly not going to complain.

--

Earth was an amazing place.

A few adjustments made to his visor's input enabled Rumble to look at the bright yellow thing in the sky without its brightness damaging his optical sensors. He tilted his head slightly to one side then the other as he stared at the organic planet's sun in marvel. So this was what a star looked like up close. He had never shared Ravage's fascination with the heavens, finding staring at the stars and magnifying what he could with his optics horribly boring, but seeing one _close _rather than as just pinpoints of light dotting the dark sky of Cybertron, he realized maybe they were not so boring after all.

And it was _warm_.

Rumble stood completely still directly in the sun's light, and he could _feel_ the difference. The cold he had known for so many thousands upon thousands of vorns was lifted as the sunlight warmed him from his outer shell to his broken frame deep inside, warmth he had not felt since before the war began. Tension-pained cables and wires began to ease and uncoil, no longer needing to stay tight to preserve precious heat. The longer Rumble stood in the sunlight, the warmer he became.

He flickered his visor a few times and finally tore his gaze from the sun when he realized he was growing hotter on his head than he was anywhere else, and when he discerned that fact, he simply lowered himself to the ground and made himself comfortable in the short green vegetation of the area, stretching out over the ground so the sunlight could shine over his whole front from head to foot.

It did not take long for the rest of his body to be heated by the sun, and he found himself shutting off his visor and drifting halfway into a pleasant recharge cycle. Primus, but it felt so _good_ to be warm again. Megatron and his orders be slagged - in just a breem, Rumble felt better than he had in thousands of vorns, and he refused to resume his active duty at least for a while. The warmth eased the pain, chased away the cold, and left his mind at peace, and after nearly a full cycle, he struggled to remember what he was doing before and why it seemed so important.

Rumble shut off his visor and folded his hands together on his abdomen as he settled into his soft, organic makeshift recharge station and let his body shut down upon reaching the conclusion that whatever he was doing before could wait. He felt comfortable and safe and was not about to end the experience before he absolutely had to, and it was not until the sun began to set and its warmth faded below the horizon with it that Rumble made himself return to his fellow Decepticons, and even then, he wondered wistfully if he could repeat the relaxing excursion when the sun rose again.

--

Silver light painted the landscape with multiple shades of white, grey, and black, and shadows crept along the ground, stretching over hills and down into crevices. It was reflected by the water of a nearby lake where it sparkled and danced over the rippling surface. It glowed as brightly as a search light yet cast as many shadows as it dispelled and shrouded the landscape in a soft, mysterious glow. Everything it shined upon was softened in appearance, hard edges muted to create a shimmering blur, even the lone black and silver form which stared up at the light's source with crimson optics filled with wonder.

Moonlight flowed over Ravage's frame and accentuated her liquid grace as she padded softly up a hill, her optics never leaving the brilliant white orb in the sky. Cybertron's moons quite literally paled in comparison to this planet's lone satellite. Cybertron's were dark, almost ominous spheres hanging in the sky and awaiting one faction or the other to stake claim on them and turn them into formidable weapons. This moon _glowed_ and exuded nothing but beauty as it lit the dark world below.

Ravage's tape whirred in her chest noisily as she captured image after image of the moon, optics focusing and zooming in as close as they could to take and store images and information on every mountain and crater she could see. When night fell on the planet this first night she and the other Decepticons were out of stasis, she first began documenting the new, foreign stars and constellations to later compare to her images of Cybertron's heavens.

Then she saw the moon.

She marveled at ancient lava flows and theorized the depths of craters and heights of mountains. Its white surface was riddled with so many scars it reminded her irrevocably of Rumble, yet it was still beautiful, and Ravage could not look away. Once she reached the top of the hill, she sat and quietly continued to stare at it with her head craned up to fill her vision with nothing but its flawed and wonderful visage. Ravage spent many cycles simply staring at it, and the realization that the moon was a permanent part of the sky she would call home for an undetermined amount of time lifted and warmed her spark in a way she had not felt in nearly forty thousand vorns. She knew then that she would not mind staying here because that realization convinced her.

Earth was an amazing place.


End file.
